Ruminations: The Healing Arts

"[The hospital was] like so many others in the U.K. But unlike many other hospitals in the U.LK. and unlike many other neonatal units int he U.K., within the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester Hospital a poisoner was at work."
"Sometimes a baby who had been sick but then [had] been on the mend suddenly deteriorated for no apparent reason."
"We say that the collapses and deaths of the 17 children named in the indictment were not naturally occurring tragedies."
"They were all the work of the woman in the dock who, we say, was the constant, malevolent presence when things took a turn for the worse for these children."
"[Hospital consultants found] one common denominator [examining the pattern underlying the unexplained collapses and deaths]: the presence of one neonatal nurse. That nurse was lucy Letby."
"We allege that it is a hallmark of some of the cases in which Lucy Letby injected air into the circulations of some of these small babies."
Crown prosecutor Nick Johnson, KC, Birmingham, England

Neonatal nurse Lucy Letby, 32, is alleged to have murdered seven babies and attempted to kill 10 more. (Credit: SWNS)

A trial opened a day ago in Birmingham, United Kingdom, in the case of a 32-year-old neonatal nurse accused of murdering seven babies and of attempting to murder an additional ten infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital, in Chester, England. Accused of being a 'poisoner at work' in the neonatal unit, the nurse denies the charges against her. Between June 2015 and June 2016, babies began dying of mysterious causes.The first victim was a baby boy Nurse Letby is accused of injecting lethally with air.

Just shortly into her shift when the baby boy died, the nurse is accused of attempting to murder the baby boy's twin sister after a lapse of 28 hours. The twins were born prematurely, but both were in good health. The girl twin suddenly stopped breathing and Nurse Letby, standing beside the incubator, called for assistance. Resuscitated, the child recovered. An expert pediatrician who reviewed the case came to the conclusion that the tiny girl had been subjected to "some form of sabotage".

"Here you can see we have a pair of twins who were born prematurely, but in pretty good condition", the pediatrician informed trial jurors. The jurors heard that some newborn infants were repeatedly targeted by the nurse. One baby suffered three failed attempts, until the forth killed him. She had, it was pointed out, an "unusual interest" in families whose children died or had fallen seriously ill, "tracked" them on social media, Manchester Crown Court heard.

"Babies who had not been unstable at all suddenly deteriorated", stated the prosecutor. Consultants were puzzled that babies who collapsed failed to respond when given the appropriate form of treatment or resuscitation. Babies who survived the immediate attempts to kill them "collapsed dramatically but then, equally dramatically, recovered", in contradiction of medical expectations.

And tellingly, many of the attacks took place during night shifts, but when the nurse moved on to day shifts, "the collapses and deaths moved to the day shifts". The methods used were various: insulin poisoned two babies; others had air injected into their bloodstream or fluid through a tube into their stomachs. "That can have a catastrophic effect on babies", stated Mr. Johnson.